Born of the widely-circulated ranting—er, complaints—of its eponymous founder, regarding the slipshod course measurements of numerous local half marathons, the Bill Aronson Track Half (To Insure Mileage Exactness) was first run in 2014.

For a race that basically just consists of "a bunch of people running around a local track on a Sunday morning with reliably bad weather," it's a totally awesome event.

Forget that. It's just a totally awesome event overall. Running 52.5 laps around a track is a great way to focus on pace and performance.

The camaraderie is excellent, the comedy is abundant, the competition is stiff, the cheering squad is reliably enthusiastic, and the friendly race photographers will send you your photos for free with no prompting. Such a deal! Heck, even the scenery is excellent, with a soaring view of the Terwilliger Hills on the back half of the track. And, naturally, the course is well-measured, coming in at precisely 25.14 m over the official IAAF half-marathon distance (http://www.google.com/search?q=13.125mi+-+21.0975km+in+m).

There is no expo, there are no bibs, and there is no swag—unless you were one of the Top 3 finishers lucky enough to win one of the AMAZING hand-crafted trophies in 2015-6. There are park bathrooms, cups of Gatorade set out on a table, and occasionally extra snacks—pretty much all you need!

On January 31, 2016, a date that will live in infamy, not only was the weather unexpectedly perfect for a fast half—just under 40°F and clear—but even more amazing is the fact that the race's (semi-)legendary founder and one other competitor ran a full 105 laps to make it a complete marathon race. I see big things in the future for the BATH.